34 



District 3. — District 3 comprises the drainage area of Cache la 

 Poudre Eiver and tributaries. Some water has been diverted into 

 this district from tributaries of the North Platte and the Grand. 

 Aside from this the district receives no water from outside its own 

 limits. The water not used in district 3 can be used in districts 1 and 

 64. The decree which governs rights in this district Avas rendered in 

 1882. Rights were decreed on the basis of the capacities of the 

 ditches, these capacities being computed from the dimensions of the 

 ditches as testified to by their oAvners. The rights thus decreed were 

 largely in excess of the quantities which had been used or which 

 could be carried by the ditches; especially is this true of the rights 

 of the small early ditches. The large ditches with late priorities 

 received amounts approximating their actual capacities. Some of 

 these rights have been attacked on the ground that the ditches could 

 not carry the volumes of water decreed. In one such case the supreme 

 court of the State held " if a mistake was made by the court in com- 

 puting the capacity of the ditch, such a mistake can not be corrected 

 in this proceeding; the capacity is res adjudicata as much as any 

 other fact which the special statute requires the court to determine." « 

 Under this decision the excessive rights are vested even if the ditches 

 have never used the volume of water decreed and can not carry it. 

 They can be lost only by abandonment. 



The following table gives the rights in district 3 and the prior 

 rights in lower districts : 



Rights to water in district 3 and prior ri(/hts in lower districts. 



There is a large number of reservoirs in this district, but their 

 rights had not been defined in 1904. Testimony regarding the 

 capacities and dates of construction of these reservoirs was taken 

 during the summer of 1904 preparatory to an adjudication. The 

 rights in this district, which are prior to any in the lower districts, are 



« Water Supply and Storage Company v. Larimer and Weld Company, 24 Colo., 

 323. 



